


All things quotidian and quixotic

by kyrieanne



Category: The Brave (TV 2017)
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 13:43:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14214384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrieanne/pseuds/kyrieanne
Summary: Domestic prompt fills for our favorite team...





	1. Chapter 1

_Prompt: warm sheets_

 

Jaz will be the first to admit that when she’s sick she becomes pretty pathetic; it’s not something she’s proud of. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she doesn’t have a single childhood memory of either parent doting on her when she got sick or maybe it’s the loss of control over even her own strength. For whatever reason, when she’s sick Jaz unravels. 

So when she catches the flu in the middle of very-much-not-flu-season, Jaz hides in her room. She makes it until after breakfast before there’s a knock on her door. It’s Top. 

“Gonna join the world today?” 

She might have moaned a response, but Jaz isn’t sure. Her brain feels swollen, the tiny trash can in her room if full of puke, and she really wants to get out of bed because she’s pretty sure her sheets are sweat-soaked, but anywhere but bed sounds physically impossible right now. 

Everything that happens after is blur:  Top lets himself into her room, McG comes in after him, they crouch at her bedside, and one of them pushes her hair off her face. She has a memory of Preach taking out her puke-filled garbage bin and Amir bringing in warm towels. She thinks that is what happened, but she can’t be sure. There’s water poured down her throat and someone spoons broth to her chapped lips. 

“Why the hell didn’t you wake me up?” Top says. He’s the one feeding her, she thinks. The next thought comes slow and dull:  she should be mortified that her CO is feeding her, but right now she can’t muster the energy. 

There’s more puke and an arm steady around her back as she vomits into that damn tiny trash can again. That same hand rubs looping circles along her back. 

Another vague memory:  Amir braiding her hair so she doesn’t get puke on it again, and Preach offering commentary on the job he’s doing. 

“Jazzy,” McG says at some point, “I’m gonna hook you up to an IV to get some fluids in you. Nothing serious. Just a precaution so I don’t have to take you to medical.” 

There’s a prick and then Top’s steady voice, “Rest. We’ve got you.” 

“Sheets,” she mumbles. 

“What about your sheets?” 

Jaz can’t think of the words so she knocks her own pillow onto the floor. It takes some graceless fumbling but she pulls at the fitted sheet on her mattress. She doesn’t actually get it off, but manages to pull up one corner. It snaps against her shoulder and she flails because it feels like it’s closing in on her. 

But then there are a pair of strong arms beneath her and she’s being lifted - held - and everything smells like sandlewood, though Jaz admittedly isn’t sure what sandlewood smells like except it smells like Top. 

“We’re gonna change out your sheets,” he says, “so you can sleep.” 

Some period of time goes by and Jaz gives into the temptation to rest her cheek against Top’s chest. She hears his heart beat, and she thinks vaguely she’s glad his heart beats. She’s glad he exists. 

When she exhales against his collar bone his arms tighten around her, and Jaz thinks this is why she hates being sick. She unravels when she’s sick and this is what happens:  being cradled by her CO. She tries to apologize, but he either doesn’t understand her words or shushes her. She’s too tired to decided which. 

What makes all her feelings of guilty and embarressment fade away are the warm sheets. Someone produces fresh out the dryer sheets that smell like those candles Preach puts around the Quonset hut. Then Top is lowering her into them and she curls into the heat and softness around her. 

“Sleep, Jazzy,” McG says. Amir promises her a breakfast entirely of her choosing once she can keep food down, and Preach promises to bring her tear in the morning. 

Top stays - at least as long as Jaz is still half-awake. He sits on the floor next to her puke bucket (empty and cleaned thank goodness) and she sinks into the warmth of her bed and room. There’s something so good about sliding her legs between the warmed up covers and there’s something better knowing that someone is there waiting for her when she wakes up. 


	2. Chapter 2

_Prompts: Why did I let you remodel the bathroom?”; “Here’s the grocery list”’; don’t think she noticed my new haircut; “No, that’s not how you do that”_

They each have their thing:  Preach populates the Quonset hut with candles his wife ships him from home, Amir has a CORRECT way to organize the dishes, McG had to remodel the bathroom to fix what he considered a woeful lack of counter space, and Top has his grocery list. 

A bunch of grandmas, they all are 

Jaz tells Patton as much one Saturday as her guys bicker from the kitchen. She and Patton are tucked on the couch playing video games. She’s doing a pretty good job of ignoring them until Amir shouts, “That’s not how you do that,” and she misses her shot. Patton whines and looks at her pityingly. 

McG is on KP today and Amir has been hovering as he puts the dishes away. McG brandishes a spatula in Amir’s direction as if to hold him off. 

“I’ve labeled where everything goes. All you have to do is read.” Amir shakes his head. 

“I put everything back where the dumb labels say,” McG counters, “I don’t know why your herbs aren’t in the right order.”  

Preach and Top look incredulous from their spots at the table, but Jaz knows better than to think any one of them is better than the other. She lives with a bunch of fussy soldiers who could spend a week covered in mud, stinking and secreting sweat, but unravel if you mess with their domestic  _thing_. 

“Why does it matter?” 

Amir’s mistake is answering the question, “To maintain  _mise en place_.” 

McG cracks first and pretty soon Preach is crying he’s laughing so hard. Amir swears in a dialect Jaz doesn’t know and disarms McG of the spatula. 

“I’ll do it myself,” he says.

Top finds Jaz from across the room and winks at her. 

*** 

It’s McG’s turn next when one of Preach’s candles is knocked over and spills wax all over his brand new bathroom counter (no one knows how McG found the slab of stone in Incrilirk to replace the MDF pre-fab one). 

“Just fess up,” he complains over dinner that night. The wax has hardened by now because McG insists that whoever spilled it should scrape it up. 

“Who was the last one to - you know,” Amir waves his hand. 

“Take a shit?” Jaz supplies. She’s never been so glad to have her own bathroom, even if it’s basically a closet. 

Preach sets his water glass down with a  _thud._ “Is that what you’ve been using my candles for?” 

Amir and McG both refuse to look at Preach. Top is suddenly very keen to feed Patton bites of his dinner in exchange for a shake. 

“Those are hand poured candles infused with essential oils,” Preach scoots back his chair, “they’re in there to use when you shower. The steam and the oils are good for your -,” he stops because they’re all looking at him with wide eyes, “Forget it. Neanderthals all of you.” 

Preach stalks away from the table, and Jaz takes the opportunity to steal Top’s last fry when no one else is looking. 

*** 

Top is different - the others are fun - but this is to keep him from thinking he’s above such domestic squabbles. That he’s the grown-up here. 

With him - it’s the grocery list. The rule is if you’re the last one to use it - you add it to the list. The other rule is you need to add it in the correct section of the notepad he has stuck to the fridge with an adhesive magnet. Each section is an aisle at the commissary so when one of them goes they can get in and out as fast as possible. 

“Because the end of the world would be wandering around a grocery store, poking the shelves, seeing what’s out there that you haven’t tried,” Jaz teases him one night. They’re in the kitchen. It’s his turn to make dinner and she’s perched on the counter keeping him company. 

“It’s a system,” he shrugs and reaches over her legs to grab a dishtowel. 

For the brief second his wrist brushes her thigh and she notices the bump on the outside of his wrist; there’s objectively nothing attractive about that part of a man’s body. But Jaz finds her gaze focused on that tiny part of him - her fingers want to grab his wrist and turn over his forearm, to feel the corded muscle there and skim her fingers across the sensitive skin right below that strange little bone at Top’s wrist. Absently, she repeats the gesture on her own wrist. She inhales and steals a glance at Top. He didn’t notice did he? But he’s back to making dinner, and Jaz sits up straighter as if that’ll shake off whatever has her acting weird today.  

Top dishes a spoonful of his “famous” jambalaya onto a plate and hands it to Jaz to taste test.  “We’re military. We like systems.” 

“Thanks for the explanation,” she deadpans, “I wasn’t sure about that. 

Top simpers and pushes the jambalaya toward her. She takes a test bite. “Needs more kick,” she says through a mouth full of food. 

Top waves her off. “You’re the one with the stomach of steel. Besides -,” he gives her that smug look that just makes her want to punch him and laugh at the same time, “Without the grocery list system all of you would go hungry.” 

She laughs and hops off the counter. Oh, this was gonna be fun. 

*** 

“I know one of you did it.” 

He waits until after dinner when they’re all sitting on the couch watching Jaz kick McG’s ass at the latest first-person shooter game. Patton is next to Jaz and quirks his head at Top as if insulted. 

“Not you,” Top says quickly. 

“What are ya talking about?” McG says through a mouth full of Amir’s latest concoction. The two seemed to have bonded over the tedious job of scraping dried wax out of of the grout lines of the bathroom floor tile; McG happily took on KP duty to Amir’s standards in exchange for the chance to request his favorite foods. Jaz was happy because when Amir was happy they all ate better. 

Jaz knows how to play this - she doesn’t lift her eyes from the screen, and manages to take out McG’s character as he, Preach, and Amir all stare at their CO. Only Patton notices her victory. He puts a congratulatory paw on her leg and she rewards him with a scratch behind the ears. 

“One of you convinced the commisary to rearrange all of their aisles. So now my system doesn’t work.” Top waves his hand written notepad with the carefully labeled aisle numbers and categories. 

Preach tilts his head, “Are you insane?” 

Top directs his gaze at Jaz, “You’re the last one to mention my system.” 

“Yeah, cause if the four of you were the  _Golden Girls_  that system qualifies you as the Betty White character. So many damn rules.” 

McG hoots, “Who are the rest of us?”

“You’re Blanche,” Jaz says. 

“Naturally.” 

“Preach is Dorothy, and Amir is Sophia.” 

Preach sets down his latest piece of tech, “How the hell does Amir get to be Sophia?”

“Do you not think Amir could pull off Sophia? She’s a wily one. He’s the invisible man.” McG counters. “Besides, you’re totally Blanche. She’s always exasperated.” 

“Which one of you is going to fess up to getting the commissary -,” Top starts. 

Jaz shakes her head, “Are we still talking about that?”

“It’s more likely they’ve been rearranging and you haven’t noticed.” Amir offers. 

McG leans over to Amir, “Do you know what we’re talking about? The  _Golden Girls_?” 

“No idea.” 

“That’s what we’re watching after I kick Jazzy’s ass at this game.” 

“Can you get the _Golden Girls_ in Turkey?” Jaz asks. 

Top claps his hands together. “Who convinced the commissary to rearrange every aisle just to mess up my system?” 

McG looks at Jaz, “He’s totally Betty White.” 

Jaz holds up a finger, “Not Betty White; she’s cool. He’s Rose.” 

Top swears. 

Amir tries to be helpful again and Jaz really wants to pat him on the head, “Top, you just didn’t notice.” 

“That’s impossible,” he counters. 

Jaz sets her controller down. “Did you notice I got my hair cut last week?” 

All of the men still. Top looks like a cornered animal. 

“That’s–that’s not the same. You always wear it up. This is an entire grocery store.” 

Jaz shrugs, “And yet you missed what was right in front of you.” 

 


End file.
